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Is War Or Peace Better For The American Economy?: Left of Center View

America's emergence from the Great Depression and into an unprecedented era of prosperity is largely credited to World War Two, and thus was born the myth of war's effectiveness in restoring a country's economy.

War is expensive, not just in terms of devastation and lives lost, but also in terms of dollars and cents. The first armies were usually paid, either directly or indirectly with the spoils of war. In the days of rape and pillage, War was profitable or more specifically raids were a great way to make a quick fortune. Besides it was great from an HR prospective, most of your employees didn't last long enough to get paid. But as long as everything was simple and on a smaller scale beating the crap out of your neighbors was a great way to make a living.

As things got bigger they also got more expensive. It took a lot of people to take a castle, even more to invade a fortified city, and an immense army to successfully invade a country. But while the principals of warfare are fairly simple, occupation is a whole lot harder, impossible really. Can you name a single successful occupation? Everyone gets thrown out or overthrown eventually.

The U.S. didn't try to occupy the Europe it liberated after WWII, sure we had and have troops there, but for the most part it was a group effort. We were the good guys, the saviors, we were also the only country with all our factories and transportation still working. There were whole countries that needed to be rebuilt and American steel was perfect for the job. Newly opened markets and no competition! How do you not succeed in that scenario?

Now we live under a different reality. There is no global conflict demanding our presence and we are not being greeted as liberators by many. There is no great demand for our goods and services to rebuild nations and those who do need our help don’t have a lot of money to repay us for it. Instead of staving off an economic depression our current wars are causing one. There is little reward to be had from our troops fighting in the Middle East and the vast resources needed to maintain our presence in the region are costing the taxpayers billions of dollars on a monthly basis. It was a war in Afghanistan that bankrupted the Soviet Union and caused them to lose the Cold War. And they were essentially right next door. We have to send our troops halfway across the world to get to the fight. Just getting them there is costing us a fortune and unless we’re looking to get into the heroin trade there isn’t likely to be much return on the investment.

Kyle Pesonen - Staff Writer | E-mail Comments on this column. | Click icon to Digg this article

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Is War Or Peace Better For The American Economy?: Right of Center View

If you set aside the arguments about morality and the political merits of war, it seems that on balance war has been historically good for America but in today’s global economy the old models might not any longer apply. With globalization and outsourcing the production of materials for the war effort may no longer be a viable source of jobs for the American worker.

During World War II unemployment was virtually non-existent. The majority of the men in the country were employed in industry supporting the war or off fighting the war in one of the many theaters of battle we were involved in. The level of unemployment was so low that women who had historically been relegated to the home found themselves being pressed into service to support the war effort. “Rosie the Riveter” was born and women became accepted and valuable members of the workforce. While many soldiers died their sacrifice and the war effort allowed us to complete the recovery from the Great Depression and began sixty years of relative economic prosperity in America.

Jobs were not the only benefit of World War II. During the war science and technology advanced by leaps and bounds. From medical breakthroughs to the development of atomic power America and the world benefited significantly from the work done to support the American war effort. It spawned industries that support employment around the world to this day. For its time it was the single greatest economic stimulator the world had ever known. If not for the advances made during World War II the face of modern technology would be nothing like what it is today.

In our current economy war might not be as beneficial. Our leaders have passed laws encouraging the outsourcing of labor including the manufacture of components used in the building of military supplies. We outsource everything from customer support to research and development. Supplying a war effort no longer necessarily means jobs for Americans outside of the military. There will be work for soldiers but that is hardly enough to bring about the kind of recovery we saw during World War II.

While there was once a time when war was good for the economy it seems that now war is more of a drain on the economy than benefit. The government spends billions to support the effort with no tangible returns on the investment. The right and wrong of the war being put aside, war does not make economic sense for America in the 21st Century. While it may from time to time be necessary for the greater good of America and the world, war is no longer something you can use to fix a bad American economy.

The Realist - Patriot at Large | E-mail Comments on this column. | Click icon to Digg this article

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